Fantasy Life
by Marina Lenore
Summary: When the well drops Kagome into yet *another* world, she finds herself juggling three lives, and two world-saving quests, with only one person to help her get through this new ordeal. A most surprising person indeed. Kagome/Miroku.


Kagome is a bit over a month into her new life, her new travels, when she is attacked by a yōkai while heading back to their camp from the onsen nearby. She calls out for Inuyasha but, to her shock and surprise, it is Miroku-sama who rescues her. When she asks after Inuyasha he gives her a sympathetic and pained look; one that is familiar to her by now. Inuyasha has gone after Kikyō again. She isn't even sure why she is surprised any more, and when she gets back to camp, they all go to sleep, before they travel to Edo so that she can visit home – much against Inuyasha's protests. Before she leaves, she has a private conversation with Kaede in which she tells the older miko about what happened and that she is going to stop chasing after Inuyasha. Kaede asks for more details and Kagome willingly gives them, before Kaede (reluctantly) agrees with her that it is the correct decision.

Sango-chan is giving her an odd look when she exits the hut, and she smiles at her, getting a smile in return, before she heads to the well and jumps in.

It's then that everything goes haywire.

* * *

It really _would_ just be Kagome's luck to exit the well straight into thin air, falling to the ground in front of a strange group of people who are fighting a monster. She had at least brought her bow and quiver with her so she could practise while she was in the future, and she vanquished the monster – which was surprisingly not a yōkai but was still weak to her miko abilities – rather easily. There is another miko in the group, and Kagome is stuck finding herself in a position of responsibility to train the other miko in her abilities when she realises the girl has no idea even what miko are, much less that they have special powers.

She soon finds out the names of her new travel partners – Barret, the leader; Cloud, the second in command; Tifa, Cloud's childhood friend; Red XIII, a cool looking tiger-like being; Aerith, the miko; Cait Sith, a cat robot; Yuffie Kisaragi, a thief; Vincent Valentine, a former security operative; and Cid Highwind, a pilot who chain-smokes. Unsurprisingly, they are on a mission to save the world from some axe-crazy son of a bitch who killed a bunch of people and interfered in their plans. She travels with them for a week before she meets him, as they stop at a temple, and he reveals the full extent of his plan to them.

It doesn't really shock her that he is out to destroy the world in order to absorb more power and strengthen himself – crazy people were crazy, and power hungry sons of bitches were triply crazy.

During that week of travelling she got a lot of practise in both with her miko powers and with her bow and arrows, and had begun learning how to aim while she was jumping and running. When she disappeared in the middle of the night after the confrontation with Sephiroth, she was sent back to her own time, somehow not at all weirded out by the fact that it was still the day she left the Feudal Era.

She was rather grateful for that fact, actually.

* * *

Surprisingly enough, it is Miroku-sama of all people who notices that something strange is going on, that something different has happened. When he confronts her about why her monthly calendar had small red X's in the corners of her daily mark offs instead of larger X's – and that she was still marking the days off with larger X's – she confides in him about her latest adventure, something she has not even told her mama about. He had smiled and asked her if that was the source of her unusually better proficiency with her weapons and abilities, and she answered an affirmative – there is no point in lying about it after all, and if nobody else had noticed these thing yet or thought to ask her about them, then they probably wouldn't do so at all.

* * *

When Kagome uses the well to go home a couple weeks later, she doesn't go home at all – instead she is dropped right off where she had left the group, right smack back into her sleeping bag and everything. She takes the opportunity to get more sleep eagerly, and in the morning when they head off, she is the one making breakfast, as has become usual to her during both her times in the Feudal Era and in her time in this strange fantasy land with crazy technology.

When Aerith disappears from the group, Kagome is the one to notice it, and as they chase after the sweet and innocent-hearted miko, she gains more practise with her bows and arrows; more practise running and jumping and shooting whilst doing both.

Then Aerith is killed by Sephiroth.

The death of Aerith completely changes the dynamics of the group, and Kagome finds herself being even more of a traditional miko; listening to the ache of her companions' hearts as they pour out their woes to her. They find out many disturbing things about Jenova during their travels, and a week after she is pulled into this fantasy world she is tugged back home to the future – right in the middle of the night again and deposited back home right in the evening in time for dinner again.

* * *

Miroku-sama notices the smaller X's again, and she eagerly tells him about her adventures this time, finding her own shoulder to cry on when talking about the death of the innocent young woman who had been her student and a listening ear to tell the secrets of Jenova to. His presence is comforting, reassuring, and soothing, and she finds herself talking to him more and more frequently as the days pass.

There is far more to Miroku-sama than he lets most other people see.

* * *

Kagome was expecting it when she went to go home again, so she is unsurprised to find herself back in her sleeping bag and back in the strange world when she uses the well again. It only takes a couple days for them to find Sephiroth once more, and they find out that there are many Jenova clones that that mad scientist Hojo (she finds it funny that the name of such an unassuming person in her time is the name of some batshit insane scientist in this place) created, and their second in command Cloud was manipulated into handing over the Black Materia that Sephiroth wanted to use to fulfil his plan.

Then the bomb is dropped and they learn that Cloud himself is a Jenova clone, with Sephiroth's evidence to back it up. Kagome reassures Cloud that regardless of what he might be, he is still a decent person trying to do the right thing and that is what matters the most to any of them. He seemed to be reassured before Sephiroth blind-sides them all and summons Meteor, which separated them from Cloud and ended with them being placed under arrest by a group of Turks.

Being placed into a cell as a proper convict is a new low for Kagome, and she was still awaiting her charges along with Tifa, Yuffie, and the rest of the group when she was promptly sent back home.

If it even was home, any more. Lately the Feudal Era had been feeling more and more like home than either the future or the strange fantasy world she had been going to in her travels more recently.

* * *

All too soon, Miroku finds out about her recent escapades, and his visible concern for her over her mental health about the arrest – and concern over the consequences of her arrest – warms Kagome's heart. She considers him a good friend by now, so their -sama's have been dropped, and as they travel she finds herself noticing things about him that she used to take for granted.

Miroku, she discovers, is why the Feudal Era feels more like home to her than her birthplace does.

Well, and Shippō-kun, too. The little kitsune is like a son to her.

* * *

Sango says nothing of what she feels about the recent escapades of the group to Kagome-chan. Something that feels like Divine intervention is pushing Kagome-chan and Miroku-sama closer together, and Sango is relieved about the lessening of serious flirtations towards her as Miroku-sama spends more of his time with Kagome-chan. She didn't know how to feel about the flirting and whether or not to take it seriously – seeing how he treats Kagome-chan makes her relieved that she hadn't begun to take it seriously yet, because surely he wasn't that serious with it when he treats Kagome-chan how he does. He is clearly in love with her, but does not flirt with or grope her. Granted, it might be because Kagome-chan is different to the rest of them, but whatever the case is, Miroku-sama is serious about Kagome-chan and not treating her at all like he treated Sango.

Sango is happy for Kagome-chan, and hopes that their miko companion will soon begin to feel the same way about Miroku-sama as he does about her – she deserves him much more than she ever did Inuyasha, who treated her like shit. Kagome never deserved to be treated like _that_.

* * *

Kagome and the rest of the group have been sentenced to execution, she finds out the day she goes back; she helps them all escape from their holding cells and they go travelling again, a few days later finding a memory-erased Cloud washed up on a beach. There is much division on what to do, before Kagome firmly states that she and Tifa – Tifa having known Cloud for his whole life and Kagome having miko powers that can help soothe people after being upset, which is likely to happen to both Cloud and Tifa during this incident – will stay with Cloud and help him recover his memories as the rest of the group travels to continue fighting against the Shinra corporation.

An attack from the WEAPONS that are roaming free in an attempt to save the world by stopping the Meteor rushing towards them destroys the island, and the three of them are dumped into the Lifestream that sustains the planet, still alive and still trying to recover Cloud's memories. Eventually Tifa succeeds, which leads to a very upset Cloud that Kagome gently soothes, her ki leaking into him with a calming assurance. Tifa is similarly upset, having found out that his previous memories were falsified ones, and so Kagome uses her ki on Tifa as well, gentling the upset and soothing her. They are still going over the reconstructed memories that are more true than the memories Cloud had before their separation when Kagome disappears.

She is most displeased to be back in the future, but restlessly eats dinner, spends time with her family, and goes to sleep; wishing for Miroku to be with her the entire time.

* * *

Miroku listened to Kagome's tale easily when she went to tell it to him, and he helped comfort her from the stress of everything that had happened to her. It is upsetting how used to life-threatening situations she is becoming, and also upsetting that she is living _three_ different lives. Seriously; one is enough!

Although, admittedly, Kagome doesn't mind the second of her three lives that much; how can she when Miroku is with her? He soothes her, listens to her, entertains her, and helps her recover from the stress of her life in ways that nobody else – not even her mama – can do.

Kagome thinks she is in trouble, until she finds Miroku watching her with concern one night as she is fiddling with her food, and she realises that if she is in trouble, then Miroku is in trouble too.

They might as well be in trouble together with each other as anything else.

* * *

When Kagome is dumped back into the other world – still in the middle of the Lifestream, and still just having learned that Cloud had been taken as a test subject along with his friend Zack Fair – she is relieved. Cloud tells Tifa and Kagome the rest of the tale, about how Zack tried to escape with him but was killed, resulting in Cloud taking his sword, suppressing his memories and combining them with what he knew about Zack to create a new personality to work off of in order to cope with the stress of everything in the process.

Kagome and Tifa accept him as he is, and he accepts himself when he finds that out. Then the Lifestream dumps them back out onto the planet and they search for the rest of their group. When they find them, they all learn that Aerith, sweet, determined Aerith, was casting a spell with a White Materia when she died; a spell called Holy that was the only counter to Meteor.

The spell succeeded in being cast, but Sephiroth was preventing it from working. In order to help finish Aerith's will, the group decides that the first thing they need to do is save the lives of the people on the planet, which means stopping the WEAPONS. During their journeys they confront Hojo, find out that he is Sephiroth's father, and that he has been feeding Sephiroth Mako energy in an attempt to aid him in his plans. The man is delusional and insane, seriously!

He ended up experimenting on himself and dying in combat after being mutated by the Jenova cells he had so widely used in his experiments on others.

They are readying themselves to confront Sephiroth when Kagome is pulled back to the future, grumbling discontentedly the entire time. This. Was. Ridiculous. Seriously! Like, come _on_ – she was at least almost done with _one_ of her planet-saving quests; couldn't she at least  finish the damn thing before she had to go work on her other one again?!

The first thing she does when she gets home is take a bath to try and settle her mind, thinking the whole time about how she misses Shippō-kun sleeping with her at night and how she wants to talk to Miroku.

* * *

Miroku encourages Kagome to keep her hope, stroking through her hair softly as she rests her head on his shoulder. She has admitted her feelings to him; they were received by a practically joyous smile and an admission that he had felt the same about her for some time. Kagome finds out shortly after her admission that Sango-chan saw this coming a mile away – she has already threatened Miroku with grievous bodily harm if he ever hurt Kagome, which was sweet and which Kagome vowed to thank Sango-chan for, even though she knows the threat was unnecessary; Miroku isn't like Inuyasha.

Shippō-kun notices the change, and excitedly asks Kagome and Miroku if they will be his parents, begging in such a way that they have no choice but to say yes to the little kitsune – his first parents must be proud; kitsune were notorious for getting their way when they wanted something. Sango-chan is clearly pleased when she sees this interaction, and Kagome sends her a smile. She is grateful for Sango-chan's never-ending support of her.

* * *

Kagome is relieved once again to find herself in the strange fantasy and science-fiction heavy world when she makes to go "home" a few weeks later. Miroku is the only one who knows that every time she is going "home" she is really going to save another world for a time before she returns to them. They confront Sephiroth that day, and after many, many fights, Cloud finally defeats him, proving to himself that he is worthy of the friendship he has in spite of being a test subject.

Once Sephiroth is defeated, Holy is released, and Kagome is promptly transported back to her original time before the Meteor hits, incidentally at the same time as the Lifestream of the planet rises to combat the Meteor that has drawn too close to be pushed away by Holy.

* * *

Kagome sighs as she snuggles close to Miroku. She is confident that whatever happened to her other friends in that strange world she had been visiting for ages now, the planet itself would be healed of the disaster that had fallen upon it. Miroku is too, and as they talk softly together that night, Shippō-kun snuggled into her lap, Kagome finds that she is glad to be back to fighting against Naraku alone, instead of Naraku and Sephiroth-slash-Jenova together, and that her life has somewhat resumed its usual order.

Things are back to normal, for her. Her normal fantasy life.


End file.
